Friends

The 2nd part of the Belgium weekend trip with my fellow schoolmates interning around europe was spent in Brussels. From what i've heard from people who have been to belgium/fellow interns living in france, one day in brussels is more than enough to visit its iconic places. Honestly, I'm not sure about that, I would probably like to have a couple more hours (well Jerald and I had only 10 hours to spend in brussels) to enjoy the night lights and food more, nevertheless, we had a great time.

Well, before we headed to brussels, Jerald and I woke up bright and early for our complimentary breakfast at the hotel and headed for the Choco-Story Musuem.

Unfortunately we didn't have much time to stay and watch the whole chocolate making demonstration, BUT free chocolates is always a plus :)

Had to run for the train again for the 2nd time on this trip! The whole train running thing is scary. Its like running having mini shocks sent to your heart. Not good. Need to learn to estimate time better and give more allowance!

Anyway, we made it Brussels and the first thing we went for? FRIES.

Unfortunately, we encountered a sad situation while eating here. We ordered 2 dishes to split and share because some of us weren't hungry and we wanted to eat other things like waffles after. When the waiter saw that we only ordered 2 portions he was pretty discriminating, and charged us less as if we were poor students.

Well, maybe we are, and I'm definitely not complaining about getting a cheaper meal, but it's so wrong to discriminate people BASE ON WHAT THEY EAT. Or if they choose to have tap water instead of 5euros coke. Get this whole judgement thing a lot when eating in the EU especially when I go out to eat with Jerald alone. Portions are SO HUGE here, I rather share than let food go to waste because I can NEVER finish. Why do people judge so easily. Its sad.

After lunch, we headed to the Digital Comic Museum. It was really really good. Huge museum which we didn't really have time to visit EVERY single thing, but managed to cover the bulk of it! It was so entertaining to read about the different types of comics and the process in from the individual sketching to the story board to actually forming and printing of the comic books. Definitely made me want to get into a comic series!

So continued to roam the streets until dinner time. I found Mr Bronze man. Remember Mr Gold Man from Amsterdam? Well Mr Bronze Man was just as nice, and he spoke in squeaks. Which was so entertaining!

Also we found Biscuits with a Message. One packaging said "Not only for good kids", and another "This is the Speculoos that will love you back". HOW CUTE IS THAT.

Famous Godiva Chocolate Strawberries everyone else convinced me not to buy and that I could make it on my own.

After walking around for a while with no where to go to, Daryl brought us all to this park that overlooked part of the city. Sadly, the cloudy weather meant not a very clear sunset view, but still, we had a nice walk there :)

That wraps up my short weekend getaway to Belgium. Visiting different cities in Europe is so much fun. The people and architecture of each country (even each city in each country) is so different all so very unique! I JUST WANT TO SEE THEM ALL!!

Can't wait to travel non-stop for 20 days during winter break! So glad for this opportunity to explore and live in Europe. For all the inconvenience and the getting use to a new culture, even sometimes the level of discrimination, being able to see these countries in real life and capture them in pictures, its all worth it.

10 Hours in Brussels

9 September 2014 Brussels, Belgium

I absolutely LOVE gardens, flowers, fountains, ponds... (proceeds to list everything you can find in a garden, sans pigeons and crows) I made a promise to myself to visit the Giverny Gardens during my stay in Paris, and I am so glad I did.

The Giverny Garden is also called Claude Monet's Garden, as it was the inspiration behind some of his impressonistic paintings and more importantly, he lived there. His house was IN the garden!

Before heading to the garden, we made a pitstop to pick up some Pierre Hermé macarons! They were definitely different from anything I've had in Singapore.

Picture of Jerald and I after I picked him up from the airport :)

Jerald and I went on the Viator Tour, just because we thought it'd be the most convenient way to get there without a car (and partly because he thought the price was in Euros when it was actually in POUNDS!)

Nevertheless, it we had a nice time there. It would have been better if we got to spend like a half an hour longer in the garden, but still, i liked it that it was a free and easy tour. = After you're dropped off at the garden, you're handed a map and you could roam around freely as long as you reach the pick up point by a specific time.

The bamboo trees were beautiful!

Gorgeous water lily pond.

I love how the water has the ability to reflect the sky above it. The whole place felt so serene an ethereal it felt as though we were transported to a different era. Felt a little Alice in the Wonderland-ish at times!

Flowers were lined up in rows just like this. It was really hard to get a picture of an empty land (apart from those that were cordoned off) as the pathway was so small! Thankfully there weren't many visitors on a hot saturday afternoon, and we didn't have to squeeze our way through too many people.

Random chickens minding their own business in a corner

These two old men were just sitting there enjoying their saturday afternoon talking about life while tourist whiz in and out of Claude Monet's house just behind them.

Europeans are really different from Asians. I feel the elderly here have a lot more independence, and even though some of them have problems walking (they bring around & or sometimes 2 walking sticks with them) they do not hesitate to leave their house and roam the streets.

I hope in the future i'll have the luxury of aging gracefully like them, spending my days talking about life while chilling in a garden and admiring the flowers. I wouldn't be disheartened by my inabilities, neither would I be jaded or lose hope in life.

My mum once told me, the older people are, the more baggage they have. A reply to my question of why older people I've seen (not all but some/most) seem to be really unhappy.

Weather they have regrets in their life, or terrible memories, its nice to see old europeans out and about, hanging out with ther siblings or friends, and conquering each new day!

(Sorry for going off on a whole different tangent right there!)

Back to the gardens. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed in Claude Monet's House. Still, the decoration of the house was really interesting with a different colour theme for each room, one should definitely pop in when they're visiting the gardens!

Before heading back to Paris, Jerald and I got an icecream each from a truck. Homemade and really delicious. Fruit flavoured sorbets in france have yet to fail me.

Jerald insisted that I should upload the last photo, because it shows my true colours and how i'm like in real life - whatever that means...

Hope you liked the pictures from Giverny. If anyone should visit Paris, please please do yourself a favour and extend your stay to include sometime for a day trip out of the city (if you can maybe 2!). Take the opportunity to visit Giverny and also Versailles, and even Loire Valley (which I hope i can squeeze in the time to go to between my internship, and weekend trips!)

Heading off to Brussels and Bruges for this weekend, more photos of that and my prev. weekend trip to amsterdam soon!

Thank you for bothering to read my blog! Btw, if you happen to be one of my classmates in Berkeley, I hope you're enjoying the great San Francisco weather. All the best to your coming year in USA, make lots of new friends, go out of your comfort zone, travel around alone, please pretty please do NOT be so caught up with your grades, and see you in school next year!